The photo was taken in 02.16.2019 as a part of my doctoral research project to document birdwatching citizen science practices. I took part in a field trip organized by three groups: Uameros Pajareros, Aves FC and Aves Guardianes de Tlahuac. I documented most of the trip in video, using a GoPro camera, but I also took some stills -like this photograph, using my iPhone 6 camera.
Arturo Vallejo, "How can you tell this photo was staged?", contributed by Arturo Vallejo, STS Infrastructures, Platform for Experimental Collaborative Ethnography, last modified 25 August 2019, accessed 18 December 2024. https://stsinfrastructures.org/content/how-can-you-tell-photo-was-staged
Critical Commentary
This photo was taken during a field trip I made to document a pajareada, a birding visit, in an ejido (a rural shared land) in Tlahuac, a southern semi-rural district of Mexico City.
How can you tell it was staged? THE ANSWER: birding is a very competitive/collaborative practice. The usual dinamic is that someone spots a bird, tells the other participants and they all gather to watch the specimen (some use photo cameras, others binoculars, some even a use spyglass or a cellphone). Then, they all try to identify the specimen commenting its distinctive features and usually one or two of them confirms the identification with a field guide. After that they move on, looking for the next observation.
I took this photo during a break of the birding. I was documenting the pajareada mainly in video and used the pause to also take some stills of the crew. When the pajareros in the photo noticed I was ponting my cell phone to them, they playfully started to pose as if the were "in action". But they were all looking in different directions.